Overtown Residents Ask, Why Another Police Shooting?

MIAMI (CBS4) – A New Year’s Day police shooting of an Overtown man has touched off a chorus of voices making demands for questions to be answered.

The shooting has Miami police investigating one of their own after a SWAT officer shot and killed a man in Overtown just a couple hours into the New Year.

Family members said Lynn Weatherspoon, 27, was walking down the street on his way back from the store when he was shot by SWAT officers in unmarked black SUVs.

The shooting is the sixth in a year and heightens tension between Overtown residents, Chief of Police Miguel Exposito and Mayor Tomas Regalado.

Exposito and Regalado are embroiled in a war of words over the shootings and lack of communication between the police department and a public that is demanding to know why police-involved shootings have become so common under the current chief.

This latest shooting also is unexplained. Thurman Johnson, Weatherspoon’s God brother was with him at the time.

“He ran and panicked. He was drunk,” Johnson said. “When he ran that’s when they shot him out the window cold-blooded. They didn’t even say ‘freeze’, they didn’t say none of that.”

But CBS4’s news partner The Miami Herald is reporting that officers claim they spotted a group of men that included Weatherspoon, who they say was armed with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol after responding to a call of shots fired in the area of NW 1st Place and 15th Street shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday.

“When the officers arrived on the scene they spotted an individual standing with a handgun in his hand,” Exposito said. “There was some type of confrontation and then the individual was shot and killed by police.”

CBS4 News has learned that Weatherspoon had a lengthy rap sheet which included multiple drug and battery charges. His family members maintain he wasn’t doing anything wrong when police killed him.

Law enforcement sources told The Miami Herald that investigators recovered Weatherspoon’s pistol fully loaded, and he had additional ammo on him. It is illegal in Florida for a convicted felon to carry a firearm.

But Johnson said Weatherspoon did not have a gun in his hand. And other family members who watched the incident unfold contend the incident does not make sense.

“How can they shoot him all in the back if he pulled out a gun on y’all,” Weatherspoon’s sister, Cece Weatherspoon, said. “Y’all shot him in the back. you didn’t get no front shot.”

Weatherspoon’s shooting come on the heels of another police-involved shooting in July when Miami police shot DeCarlos Moore to death. A police union spokesman said officers mistakenly thought Moore’s sunglasses were a gun when he pulled them out of his car.

Case Filed Date Closed Date First Charge
F-02-020750-B 07/16/2002 04/22/2003 COKE/SELL/DEL/W/INT
F-02-020754 07/16/2002 08/05/2002 COCAINE/SELL/SCHOOL
F-00-010564 03/31/2000 10/02/2000 CONCEALED F/A /CARRY
This is the criminal record of the godfather who was with Weatherspoon at the time of the police shooting. Both have priors for felony gun possession.

The community is outraged? Where’s the outrage at all the drug dealing and prostitution and all the other criminal activity that goes on almost none stop in that area. the investigation is ongoing but i doubt very seriously anyone with this person’s rap sheet, if he did have a gun is going to stay around and wait to be questioned. The community doesn’t really care or they would be reporting the numerous crimes that occur there constantly. if nothing ever changes nothing will ever change.

If police give a person an order and you do not follow it you are asking for trouble especially when there is a weapon involved. As for the rap sheet it shows that the person is a repeat offender and known to police. There are some people who do something stupid, pay the price and then stay out of trouble and this is not one of them.

You sir obviously don’t know the law. You don’t have to be told to drop a gun. Being told is just a courtesy of the police officer. And pointing it is a death sentence. Got what he deserved and no one will miss him. The officers will be back on the street doing a good job in no time.

Really? How about because they don’t have any PEER PRESSURE to do the right thing and apparently it’s “ok” that guys are walking around with guns on New Years Eve, just blocks from a public celebration where 100,000 people were attending. There WAS a girl shot at Bayside, and a police cruiser had it’s rear window blown out just 30 minutes earlier. There WAS a police perimeter set up as he was being looked for. SWAT had to be brought in, and Swat did was SWAT does. The SMART thing would had been for the idiot NOT to had a gun in his hands out in public!!

None of what you all say here means a dam thing. He was guilty of no crime at that time and was shot down like an animal. No human being deserves this. I am not saying he is a saint or anything, but there is a right way and a wrong way to administer justice.

He was guilty of a crime. It is called possession of a firearm by a felon. If he didn’t have a gun which was obviously obtained illegally he would still be alive. Now if he was told to drop the gun and didn’t then he got what he asked for.

It is quoted the deceased was “drunk”, intoxicated individual with a weapon? This was probably not going to end well regardless, to be honest I’d rather he be dead than he shoot some innocent child. God may forgive him but I have little symphahy.

Ones again another black unarmed American citizen is gun down by police! This time it’s in Trenton NJ. In every state in every city the same story is told. We (that “WE” means all 15 to 20 cops or more present) thought he was reaching for a gun. In this case the responding officer said the call came in. Assault in progress. But when they arrived to the seen Mr. Brown was walking away from the victim. Police said that a woman then approached Brown in an attempt to calm him down. He threw her to the ground, police said, and then raised his hand ( NOT A GUN) “as if he had a gun in a threatening manner,” according to statement issued by acting Police Director Joseph Juniak. So they fire him up! Not one officer but three officers shot a unarmed man! They all thought he was reaching for a gun. They all felt threaten. They all fire more then one shot. Never seeing a gun from their first shot to their last! Now let me look into my Chrystal ball….The investigation will find all cops acting within the law…. The police will release Mr. Brown’s police record….If he has one! Or his driving records. Anything to say to the public Mr. Brown was a bad person (OR JUST ANOTHER N—–R) that deserve to be shot by three cops! There will be some protest MAYBE.! If Rev. Sharpton gets involve. It may be some marching. The cops love that because now the incident is no longer about police brutality. Or police shooting a unarmed human being Mr.Brown. They will now make it about the protestor and Rev. Sharpton! Then black Americans will wait for the next police shooting! Of another black unarmed child or adult! Now I wrote this post on 4/26/2011.….Check back and see how my Chrystal ball did.